Blue Screen of Death message

When I started Win 7 yesterday I was called away just as I pressed the power button. When I returned I saw a message regarding a BSOD. The Blue Screen View file reads as follows, and if someone can interpret this for me and tell me what I can do about it I would be grateful:

Probably caused by : peauth.sys <- this isn't very likely at all, the debug routine defaults to the last known driver to 'blame', in this case, it's a standard Windows driver that's been left holding the smoking gun, the real culprit having already left the building.

Run SFC /scannow and if it reports errors that it couldn't fix, reboot and run it again - and reboot and run it a third time if that one still reports errors.

If you can carefully follow the Sysnative topic (running the app. as Administrator is imperative for Autoruns to verify files) and upload the resulting zipped folder, I might be able to pinpoint a likely trigger for this; if so, there may be a method to simply delay that scan/backup/whatever, or to find a less intrusive/more controllable equivalent to use.

Probably caused by : peauth.sys <- this isn't very likely at all, the debug routine defaults to the last known driver to 'blame', in this case, it's a standard Windows driver that's been left holding the smoking gun, the real culprit having already left the building.

I agree with satrow.

If the BSODs are in fact being caused by software, Driver Verifier should be able to help us ID a 3rd party problematic driver.

Would be a good move to test your RAM, but would be a good idea to clean the RAM contacts first (rub gently with a white pencil rubber until the gold contacts look nice and bright/shiny, brush off particles w/ a clean, dry toothbrush (or similar).

jcgriff2, thanks. I followed the instructions given in your link and Driver Verifier has been running for about 9 hours now. When I enter the command verifier /query I am told no drivers are currently verified, but when I enter the command verifier /querysettings the settings are listed followed by a list of verified drivers. Is this normal?

Hi Roy, if verifier /querysettings lists the drivers, I think it should be working correctly, just keep using the PC as normal, maybe harder, throw in a few more reboots than you normally would.

DV will add some stress to Windows and the drivers, trying to force another crash and a verified BSOD dump (these are much more useful for troubleshooting); the harder you can work it, the higher the chances are that it will pick up a faulting driver early on.

There's little point running it for longer than 48 hours, it will only increase the likelihood of a false positive and add unnecessary drag on the PC. If, after ~48 hours the PC hasn't crashed, the chances are very high that the BSOD was unrelated to a driver - time to look elsewhere; some crashes are one-offs, others may only occur sporadically, maybe 6+ weeks apart, they can be tricky to pin down.